Minnesota's in the Middle

All things Minnesota politics

Sunday, December 31, 2006

Happy new year!

The official unofficial start of the 2008 election cycle will be here in a few hours. This should prove to be the most interesting presidential election ever with both the Democrats and Republicans nomination completely up for grabs. Will the 2006 losses be enough for the Republicans to endorse McCain or Gulianni? Are Clinton and Obama going to last once the heat is on? And will a centrist independent be able to make any noise? Right now I feel like John Edwards will win the Democrats endorsement and should win the popular vote although I'm not yet convinced that the right states line up for a Democrat to win the electoral college unless they win the popular vote by a wide margin. As for Republicans I still have no clue what direction they will go, I still say if Pawlenty wanted to run he would have a good chance, but it doesn't seem like he wants to go down that road. I just don't see McCain getting it as hardcore Republicans won't be excited about him, and he has worn out his welcome to some extent with independent minded Republicans. Like I've said before Michael Bloomberg is the independent who not only is somewhat likely to jump in the race but would actually make an impact, so we have a decent chance of seeing a race between three New Yorkers (Clinton, Gulianni, Bloomberg).

As for Minnesota's US Senate race we will also have a decent shot of seeing two New Yorkers in Norm Coleman and Al Franken. There hasn't been much noise from any Independence, but I would expect someone with some political status would run.

And while most of the other races won't heat up until 2008 I would expect the congressional race in the 5th district to be something to watch as Keith Ellison works to establish himself. No doubt the Republicans will line someone up to run who is a little better then Alan Fine, and we may very well see some worthy DFL challenges if Ellison runs into any trouble. I would expect both Bachmann and Walz to win re-election with no great difficulty.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Woops

While our political bodies are dominated by Democrats and Republicans that doesn't mean they are the only people that exist, and despite the fact that Democrats and Republicans want to monopolize all things political there is no reason this sloppily created law can not be followed by nominating a member of another political party. They'll bend over backwards to exclude third parties, but when it comes to honoring a law they accidentally created there unwilling to do a thing.

This is the nature of the Democrats and Republicans these days, they can't legislate intelligently, but demand power no matter what.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Unity08 in action

I just got off the phone with a fundraising phone call from Unity 08. While I have a hard time getting fully behind their effort without knowing what direction it will take us, I am happy to see they are doing the things that most of these third party presidential efforts don't do at this point. I gave a few bucks, I hope I have reason to make an actual financial sacrifice down the road. As I said a few weeks back the favorite for their support would have to be Michael Bloomberg at this point, in which case they won't need big donation, however a large # of financial supporters no matter how small would help build credibility Check them out

For Lori Swanson to consider allowing Hatch to continue to collect the taxpayers money shows that like Hatch she has a complete lack of respect for the citizens of Minnesota. While it sounds as if this is a short term thing, the transition period was between November 7th and inauguration, and Mike Hatch should be able to provide all the advice that is needed without collecting an additional paycheck after his term expires.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

An independent president?

We haven't had a major centrist candidate for president since Perot, but it could happen again this year. First of all the 2008 election starts off completly unpredictable with no incumbent, and no clear cut favorite for either party, which creates the best possible enviornment for an alternitive to Democrats and Republicans.

Right now the likely name of that candidate would be New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has associated with the New York Independence Party, and has the financial resources to fund a campaign. The other thing thats out there is Unity08, which plans on endorsing a candidate, while Bloomberg very well could be their choice they do open up an avenue for someone else, although at this point it is unclear if they will be able to do much for a candidate as they are meaningless if all they provide is an endorsement and a few thousand dollars. Unlike The Democrat and Republican candidates I wouldn't expect any announcment in the next month or two, as the lack of a nomination process means no major need to gain support to early. If you recall in 2002 Perot jumped in a little to early, and ended up paying the price for that as the momentum turned in the wrong direction around September.